The weblog of Norman Geras

March 23, 2009

Seven themes for Caryl Churchill

Being a review by me of Churchill's play Seven Jewish Children. Put on originally at the Royal Court Theatre in London, scheduled for readings by the New York Theatre Workshop, rejected for broadcasting by the BBC for impartiality reasons, given an outing in Dublin, upcoming in Austin and LA and no doubt many other centres, the play clearly deserves critical notice on this blog. You can find the text of it here [pdf]. Below is my review of that text.

1
Tell them it's a play
Tell them it's serious
But don't enlighten them
Tighten them
Put some night in them.
Tell it in the voice of Jews
Tell it only in the voice of Jews
That way any bad thought will be the thought of Jews
(Like that 'they' don't understand anything except violence)
And any thought ascribed to others will be ascribed by Jews
And not necessarily true
And maybe just an excuse
(Like that there are still people who hate Jews)
And any bad deed ascribed to others will be merely ascribed by Jews
(Like that 'they' set off bombs in cafés)
And ascribed maybe as a pretext.

2
Tell them this was the land God gave us
Tell them it was our promised land
Tell them we said it was a land without people
Tell them again that we said that
And said it wasn't 'their' home.
Don't enlighten them
Put some spite in them
By making it a story of eviction and dispossession only.
Don't tell them of two peoples with a right to self-determination
Two peoples with a claim on justice and humanity
Don't enlighten them.

3
Tell them that we won
Tell them that we're fighters
Tell them we are stronger
Tell them we're the iron fist now
Prussia of the Middle East.
Powerful Jews
Night in them, spite in them.
Don't tell them it's a play
Tell them it's real.
Frighten them.

4
Powerful Jews (tell them)
And hating, racist Jews
(Tell them this too).
Tell them we think we're the chosen people
Tell them we say that 'they' are animals.

5
Tell them about occupation and settlements
Do tell them about this because it's true
Tell them about bulldozers, knocking down houses, checkpoints, olive trees
Do tell them all this.
But don't mention the war
Whatever you do, don't mention that the foundation of the state of Israel took place with the backing of the UN, the world community
Don't mention that Israel's Arab neighbours at once mobilized for its destruction
Don't mention that they really did speak of 'driving us into the sea', that this is not just what we tell
Don't mention the Hamas Charter and its promise of killing Jews and destroying Israel
Don't mention Hizbollah, or the threats and denials of Ahmadinejad, or the growth of anti-Semitism everywhere, or the attacks on Jews, or, in certain places, the teaching of anti-Semitism.
Thank you, don't mention it.

6
Yes, tell them it's serious
Tell them not only hating, racist Jews
But also pitiless Jews.
Tell that we say 'they' want their children killed to make people feel sorry for them
And that 'they' can't talk suffering to us
Tell that we think we're the ones to be sorry for, we're entitled
And that we wouldn't care if we wiped them out, we're just happy it's not us.
Execute the reversal beloved of every spewing Jew-hater from his pit, and by every anti-Zionist who can shit
Tell them the Shoah is mere pretext now
Exploited to claim entitlement
Entitlement to inflict suffering upon others
Tell them it, tell them.

7
Tell them finally (shrinking not even from this,
Ancient libel from before the Holocaust was text let alone pretext)
That Jews kill babies, girls, boys
Tell them we say 'they' want their children killed
Tell them that Jews look at one of 'their' children and ask 'what do I feel?'
And say 'happy it's not her'.
Tell them this
And tell them it's a play
No, don't tell them it's a play
Tell them it's serious, deadly serious
Don't enlighten them
Exciten them
Whiten them
Hate in them.